thanks wolfmanstout. I didn't try the solution suggested by stefanrondinelli and based on your experience I'm glad I didn't. despite Jimwynne's recommendation of the forums as a substitute for good microsoft aftermarket support, my experience is that the quality of recommendations from the forums is random at best and as likely to be a complete waste of time or even worse. I won't try any solution recommended by the forums i cannot completely understand prior to trying it after researching it.
I'm glad you understood it and tried it and am sorry it didn't work and now you have to revert what you did even if it didn't take you that long.
I think the best solution is to stop using and paying for microsoft office when my subscription ran out and using google docs instead until microsoft provides an official solution to this system restore problem.